Oman pardons nearly 600 prisoners, including foreigners

Oman’s Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said has pardoned 599 prisoners jailed for various offenses, including 336 foreigners, the state-run Oman News Agency reported yesterday.

Local sources informed that the decision: “Was likely to have been part of a series of steps carried out by a number of countries to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus.” However, Reuters noted that the announcement did not confirm whether the release was related to the coronavirus outbreak or the holy month of Ramadan.

So far, at least 1,456,081 people worldwide have contracted the virus, of whom more than 83,713 have died, and 312,967 have recovered, according to the US’ Worldometers. The World Health Organisation has declared the crisis to be a pandemic.

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